The present invention generally relates to devices and systems for sheltering livestock, including horses, cattle, swine and poultry, and more specifically to a programmable system for efficiently using evaporative cooling devices to create an environment which protects the health and productivity of the animals.
It is known in animal agriculture to cool livestock with evaporative cooling by wetting the animal and then drying the animal through mechanical ventilation or via natural ventilation. Alternatively, lowering the temperature of the environment will also cool animals if the decreased temperature may be maintained. The disclosed system provides cooling to livestock through direct evaporative cooling and also by decreasing the temperature of the livestock environment.
The disclosed system may deliver small water particles or fog to a desired area without wetting the area, unlike the other known devices which wet one area continuously and usually result in wet bedding. With the disclosed system, as a fan oscillates over a range of positions, by the time the fan returns to a starting position, water particles previously emitted have partially or totally evaporated. Temperature and humidity may be monitored so that the maximum amount of water for evaporative cooling can be supplied to each fan under real time environmental conditions. The upper constraint on the amount of water delivered by each fan will usually be a volume of water which would wet the animal's bedding. Other environmental conditions may also be monitored, such as wind velocity, the intensity of sunlight, or the position of the sun with respect to the location of the livestock and a shading structure.
The disclosed system can be configured to emit water at high pressure through small diameter nozzles, resulting in a small water particle fog, such that the water particles flash evaporate when they come into contact with any warm surface such as the skin of an animal or person. The result is a cool animal environment with little wetting of the animal's hair-coat and virtually no wetting of the animal's bedding.
Unlike prior disclosed systems in which the fans in a circuit are limited to synchronous oscillation, the present system allows either synchronous oscillation or it allows each fan within a circuit to be programmed so that each individual fan oscillates over different zones for any desired time period. The oscillation of each fan can be directed to a particular degree range according to different specified times of the day, according to observed environmental conditions, or according to specific locations where the animals are located. This ability to direct effective cooling according to the location of the animals and the real time environmental conditions increases animal comfort and health. Programming can be changed at any time to meet the individual preferences of the animal herds person.
Fan oscillation and water output can be varied according to a pre-programmed schedule or through real time monitoring of current environmental conditions. Current temperature, humidity and wind conditions may be monitored for different zones within a facility and the fan oscillation modified as required as disclosed herein. The water output may be controlled as required by a variable-frequency-drive on a high-pressure water pump. Water output may also be controlled by switching nozzle sizes and/or increasing the number of nozzles instead of or in addition to changing pump pressure output. In conjunction with programmable oscillation, programmable water output allows the herds person to fine tune the animal's environment for maximum economic gain and animal comfort.